Golf story by Carl Anders, Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:24:00 GMT


Champions England did justice to the expectations of being billed the World Cup favourites as David Howell and Luke Donald hit the vital 59 mark at the Victoria course in the first round of the World Cup on Thursday.

They lead by a stroke, but missed out on the World Cup record by two strokes to beat Indians Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal and the Australian pair of Mark Hensby and Peter Lonard. The losing pairs were in joint second place.

David Howell, who defeated Tiger Woods win the Champions event in China, added another feather to his cap when he achieved 59.

Howell said: "… the conditions were perfect. And when we played our practice round we definitely had the impression 59 might be gettable."

Howell began with an eagle and a succession of early birdies, and Donald too joined the party. In fact, latter's eight-foot par putt on the last was instrumental in bringing up the 59.

English pair which was 10 under for the round and on track for a score in the mid-50s, but the fantasy run ended with four routine pars on the back nine.

Indians, meanwhile, were overwhelmed to be in Portugal. As one of them said, “I did not have any plans to play in the World Cup, so it was a good shock.”

Donald was unable to repeat the breaking of 60 which he did with Howell on the opening day. Both of them scored better in foursomes.

Lonard of Australia did not seem unduly perturbed over the loss. When asked about improving their showing, he said: “Yeah, suppose so. But if we don't doesn't matter. Get on the plane and go home.”

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